The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-12-31
CoD.pSIed for The Arkans0W TrGUeler. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

During the past season two natn- ralists, G. W. and E. G. Peckham have found that wasps remember the locality of their nests for ninety six hours.
 Prof. w. Ramsay suggests that color blindness is probably defect oi the brain instead of the eye. It is analogous to the dullness which pre- vents person from distinguishing ar octave's difference between two musi- cal notes, though both notes are heard there being no deafness.
 The lowest barometric pressure on record is 27.135 inches, which was ob- served in 1885 during storm over the Bay of Bengal This storm was also remarkable for it's smallness-its diameter being only from 100 to POO miles-for it's fierceness, and for its indraught toward the center.
 HEALTHFULNEss OF SoILs. - Ex- tended observations at Paris and al Munich indicate that the sanitary con- dition of locality depends on the amount of water contained in the ground. The years in which there has been large quantity of ground water present have invariably been the healthiest periods.
 The old idea that sufferers from heart disease should avoid physical exerrion has been dispelled by Prof. Oertel, who has successfully employed regulated exercise in the treatment of some forms. In a large proportion of cases the nutrition of the cardiac muscle, as of the muscular system gen. erally, is thus improved.
 THE FINEST THREAD.-Then nettle is among the substances which science has put to use during the past few years. This weed is even being culti- vated in Germany, it's fibre having proven valuable for variety of tex tile fabrics. In Dresden a thread is produced from it so fine that a length of sixty miles weighs only two and a alfpounds.
 A singular freak of nature origi- nally discovered in Western Australia is likely to remain unexplained. It consists of nine fine pearls adhering together in the form of Latin cross seven in the shaft, and one on each side of the second pearl. A suggestion is that fragment of seaweed in the shell of the oyster formed the frame on which the cross was built.
 TIE DYsPEPTIC's IDEAL.-A medi- cal man mentions that, like his father and paternal grandfather, he has always had the power of voluntarily ejecting food or fluid from the stom- ach at any time. When troubled with acidity or nausea, the stomach is emptied at will without the slightest difficulty, and may be washed out with several glasses of water. At col lege this faculty was used for gain, large doses of narcotic poisons being swallowed for wagers, and afterward immediately expelled. An investiga- tion is suggested to determine the cause of this gift, or what voluntary muscles account for it.
 How SHALL WE SLEEp?-Whether one position in sleep is better than another may be an important ques- tion, but it does not seem to have been authoritatively settled that any particular position is the best to adopt. Sleeping on the right side is more common than on the left, and sleeping on the back is comparatively rare. Evidence has been found to show that sleeping on the lett side favors bronchitis, and sleeping on the right side appears to increase ten dency to constipation. It has been strongly urged that health and lon- gevity are best secured by lowering the head and raising the feet in sleep, though some nervous affections re- quire partially erect posture.
 THE WAVE OF INTELLECT.-The mind, on which man so brides him. self, develops and expands until the age of about forty, and then declines. Decay is the memorable law of Nature. Sad is the fading away of brilliant mind at the approach of dissolution, but sadder than death is it when the brain perishes before the body. "How often, alas, we see," says Holmes, "the mighty satirist tanned into oblivious imbecility, the great scholar wander ing without sense of time or place among his alcoves, taking his books one by one from the shelves and pat ting them: a child once more among his toys, but child whose to-mor- rows come hungry, and not full handed-come as birds of prey in the place of the sweet singers of morn- ing. We must all become as little children if we live long enough; but how blank an existence the wrinkled infant must carry into the kingdom of heaven if the Power that gave him memory does not complete the mira cle by restoring it!"